Here at the Morris Museum, Kelly McCartney (Curator of the Guinness
Collection) and I have been gathering materials for an exhibit later
this year, focused on American ragtime music and utilizing a variety
of instruments, automata and original sheet music from the Guinness
Collection.

In this vein, we are hoping that MMD readers might be able to assist us
to identify some morsels of recorded music.  They are from an uncased,
Swiss cylinder musical box mechanism made circa 1905 by Mermod Frères
of Ste. Croix, Switzerland.  Our guess at this point is that this
nickel-washed mechanism may well have been originally mounted inside
an upright slot machine of some variety, but all that remained was the
mechanism.

On hearing the unusual nature of the arrangements, a cassette tape
recording was made and that tape has recently resurfaced here at the
museum.  From what we are hearing all eight melodies are some of the
earliest ragtime arrangements held as a period document via the pinning
on the music cylinder.

These recordings have been transferred to MP3 audio files, which we
would dearly like to have independently identified.  Already identified
are tune #1, "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" (1896), and tune #6,
"Harlem Rag" (1897).

We apologize for the lack in quality of these cassette tape recordings,
which were made back in 1974 while visiting a now deceased collector of
antique musical boxes in Geneva, Switzerland.  At this point, there are
no immediate relatives and we cannot trace what happened to this piece
after the owner passed.

If you like a fun musical challenge, please have a listen to these
audio files and attempt the tune identification, and if not, maybe
you could be so kind as to refer us to another knowledgeable ragtime
enthusiast who would give it a try.

Thank you in advance for any assistance and as our special ragtime
exhibit gets closer, you should look forward to reading about it in MMD!

Jeremie Ryder - Conservator of the Guinness Collection
Morris Museum, Morristown, New Jersey
http://www.morrismuseum.org/ 
jryder@morrismuseum.org.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ Hear the melodies at the MMD Sounds site,
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/Sounds/index.html  -- Robbie